Towards a demographic profile of the street homeless in South Africa

Abstract

This paper provides a demographic analysis of the Human Sciences Research Council homelessness survey, and starts to develop a profile of the adult and child street homeless populations in the northern part of South Africa. Attempting to sketch the population dynamics of homelessness, the paper reviews research methodology, looks at the age, gender and employment status of the respondents, and identifies the foreign-born and citizen population elements. The data suggest that cross-border migrants represent a significant share of the street homeless, and particularly of street children. In addition, it appears that the child and adult populations are largely separate, with older street children leaving the streets to be replaced by in-migrating rural-born homeless adults.

Keywords:

• street homeless
• homelessness
• demography
• unemployment
• immigrants
• migrants

Acknowledgements

This work forms part of the Human Sciences Research Council's 2005–2008 study of homelessness. Funding from the National Department of Social Development, the Human Sciences Research Council, the Gauteng Department of Social Development and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation is gratefully acknowledged.